New F1 technology helps workers and injured troops

Formula One technology used by McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton on the racetrack is also playing a role in protecting troops in Iraq and keeping factory workers on their feet.

An exhibition at London’s Science Museum, timed to coincide with the start of the Briton’s title defense in Australia this month, opened on Wednesday to highlight ways in which the sport has influenced sectors as diverse as healthcare, domestic plumbing and the defense industry.

“Contrary to popular belief, Formula One is not all about glitz and glamour, parties and celebrities,” said McLaren chairman Ron Dennis in a speech, with one of his cars suspended upside down above him. The 20 examples on display range from composite materials used on the 2003 Beagle 2 Mars lander to slip-resistant Wellington boots whose soles have tread patterns similar to Formula One tires.

The caption accompanying that exhibit explains that, in a seven-month trial of the footwear in a pet food factory in Doncaster, northern England, not a single person had a ‘slip accident’.

Formula One, long accused of being a gas-guzzling millionaires’ playground of excess, is keen to establish a greener image with more of a social conscience and greater relevance to the world at large.

Max Mosley, the head of the International Automobile Federation (FIA), has pushed new technologies such as the KERS kinetic energy recovery systems that harness energy generated by braking that would otherwise be wasted.